hydro or aero?

Discussion in 'Advanced Growing Techniques' started by rentamoscasas, Apr 12, 2006.

  1. faster growing, more yield, less problems... please somebody that knows tell diference
     
  2. from my experience hydro good, aero better, but you have to be on top of your aero system every day to make sure the nozzles are clean.

    I noticed that my roots got way bigger faster with aero than hydro, so I am assuming that it means it is better. The size of the plant is hard to tell.

    I noticed that the aero systems were rather small so I made my own for my plant, out of a five gallon bucket. I drilled two holes in the side, one for 3/8" nipple (for a hose attached to my pump) that expanded to half inch pvc, which I attached a 90 degree elbow and a sprinkler to, and another 3/8" nipple to drain water out the bottom of the bucket through a tube. I placed another five gallon bucket below it, and put my pump that charges the sprinkler head, and then placed the drain tube init as well. The pump charges the sprinkler with my nute solution, and the drain tube drains the aero bucket so the solution bucket never goes empty.

    I had to use spary adhesive to put tin foil around the outside of my aero bucket to keep light from shining through the plastic, and I made a hole in the bucket lid the size of my rockwool cube and I placed my plant in there. I used #12 wire and poked it through the rockwool cube so the cube would not slip into the bucket, and placed the lid on the bucket when I was done, cover it up with tin foil as well to help reflect light up into the leaves under neath the plant, and keep light away from the roots.

    My plant's roots sit on top of the sprinkler head now because they grew really long and fat really quick. I still check it every day though just to make sure the sprinkler is not clogging.

    my plant has done well and i am looking forward to seeing if it will be a big yield.
     
  3. Not trying to sound like an asshole, but if you dont know the difference between them.. you're gonna have a hell of a time starting off with aero.. as in, not fun.
     
  4. thank u for your answer im looking foward to hear from you to see how do u do with your yield antihippy.... and hoast im growing hydro and i want to know what is the difference on yield and maintanence cause im growing 96 plants and if its worthy (money wise for better product) ill try it thanks
     
  5. I've never noticed anything in yeild or potency, just time. Aeroponics is usually done faster
     
  6. What kind of pump(s) and sprinklers are you using?
     
  7. I use the pump that I got at the hydro store for this purpose, I also put an inline ball valve to regulate the pressure from pump to sprinkler so that the pressure doesn't brutalize the plants root system by spraying tooo hard.

    I also use a timer to turn my pump on and off for about 3 / 4 s of the day, but I noticed that once I forgot to put the hydrogen peroxide in after a few days the roots browned a little so I have to check on that the next few days.

    Any recomendations as to how often to have the sprayer on?
     
  8. yeah my set up is very specific for this plant, by my basic set up is gonna be this.

    I use an eb flow hydro system that allows the roots to grow past the rockwool cube, and then I will transplant each plant into a bucket when their roots show.

    My reason for doing it is to medicate my wife who has lupus, so I am interested in haveing large plants because the medical card will only allow her six plants.

    If you have 96 plants then I would suggest you use an ebb flow system because it is really cost effective. You buy a couple large trays, a pump, and rockwool cubes, and matting for the roots to grow into.

    Your size will have to do with your spacing of your plant, and how long you let it veg.

    I am not an expert I am still on my first grow, but I have read alot of posts on here, and have applied this knowledge to my set up.

    I will wind up allowing my plants to Veg as long as they flower because if you grow your plants in three steps (clone, veg, flower) you can keep the next batch in veg for 2, to 2 and a half moths for larger size while flowering plants are producing the buds.
    This will allow you to prune and do other techniques that add time to your veg period but increase your yield when you flower the plant.

    My best advantage is that I do not smoke this stuff so I can keep a cool head and allow the plant to grow alot more than your typical pot head on this board would because they are looking forward to harvesting the plant. You can tell that alot of growers on this board allow their passion for smoking interfere with their growing.
    You might have already guessed that that is why I call myself antihippy.
     
  9. from cloning to where i move the plant to the other room (flowering) its about a month and a half im growing indica and still i get about 3 and a half feet plants and yes ebb flow for flowering and vegg and drip for the moms i dont smoke either and there is no point to have big plants if u dont have enough light, sorry to hear about your wife.
     
  10. If you are growing them that big then you might want to just stick with hydro, unless you want to go through the trouble of making a five gallon bucket like I did. I have not really seen any aero system that were designed for big plants, they are designed unfortunately for the SOG method. They are spaced very close, and have shallow tubes for the roots. That is why I made my own because I couldn't find anything with enough space to allow the root growth that I know I will need to keep my plant in veg for 2 and a half months, and if I have one plant crowding another I can just move it over.

    If you have the room then you should keep the plants in stages and just veg it as long as your other room is flowering that is between 2 and 2 and a half months. Clones are small enough to keep off in a corner under a light so you can keep your clones going in the same room you have the veg going, which will allow youto keep a year long stage at 2 months a room giving you max size all the way around. It doesn't make any sence to me to pull a plant out of veg when you don't have room for it to be in a flowering room. If there is any reason to only veg a month then let me know, because it just seems that if people would just plan it right and keep both rooms going simultaneously they could have bigger harvests.

    Yeah I know about the lights. I have been using the T-5 flouros and they have been working well. They are energy saving and more importantly really cool. I can put the light like 2 inches above the plant and just adjust every day, it doesn't burn it. Your plant gets the maximum lumens this way because there is no depreciation due to distance. People go on and on about the HPS spectrum, but they have flouros that put off the same spectrum, you just have to buy different lamps for flowering versus veg. If you have two different rooms it doesn't make a lick of difference, cause you can just have the day lights in one room, and the warm lights in the other. Either way you can keep the lights real close with out fear of burning them, although I have been told to keep the light further away at flower so the buds stretch for the light. Don't know how accurate that is but I have been told.

    Bottom line is Aero is a better way to grow in my opinion but the systems that they have weren't for me, so I made my own. I have noticed bigger healthier roots, and faster growth rate of my plant. I wanna get at least half a pound per plant that is what I am shooting for.

    My wife, well I appreciate your condolences but we have the thing pretty well under control. As long as she avoids being in direct sunlight, and I keep her from being stressed out (that is where the weed really helps IMO) then she keeps her flare ups at a minimum, once or twice a month. We have been together since high school so it is easy to deal with the hard shit in life when you are really in love with someone.
     
  11. how many t-5 per plant?
     
  12. right now I have two 4 lamp fixtures over my Lst that contains 10 spots, but I am only growing 1, it is now in a bucket but I figured that it would be during veg 2 lights or 8 lamps per 10, when I flower I want there to be 1 8 lamp fixture for every 2 plants. I don't know if this will be considered overkill but I have been told you can never have enough light.

    I am still playing with my light fixtures because I am buying expensive lights off the bat, and need to budget my money. Over all that is going to be my set up.

    Veg 2 4 lamp lights per 8 or 10
    Flower 1 8 lamp lights per 2

    what do you have, and how well has it done?
     
  13. yeah, I was wondering if it had a nameplate or part numner or something.
     
  14. i have for the veg and mother room 2 1000 mh in rails 4, 3 x 3 trays, so 1 moving light for 2 trays and same set up for the flowering room but 4 lamps so 8 trays in sog mode i put in flowering room from 9 to 12 plants per tray 12 plants isnt working that well so im going to go for 9
     
  15. yeah I decided on the stationary lamp. I have these really cool light adjusters from the hydro store that once you set the tension on them you can pick the light up to height that you want them, and they will automatically adjust. Really cool, that way I can make less light work better for me. I am sure you know the table where it shows you how many lumens you lose by having the light a foot away from your plant. I would suggest the t-5s, they are cheaper to run all the way around, which in some cases means that you can have more grow projects going on at one time. Don't want to go over that power bill where you end up lookingfishy to the electric company. I have had my plant in veg and it has worked real well, I will let you know in a couple of months what my yield is.

    I read alot about all of this before I decided what I thought was the best set up, and now I am watching to see how things are going, I am really looking forward to the end to see how well I hypothosised.
     
  16. yeah please let me know im realy interested
     

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